{"id":18865,"date":"2017-05-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=588"},"modified":"2017-05-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-12T00:00:00","slug":"can-we-perceive-a-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/05\/can-we-perceive-a-chair\/","title":{"rendered":"Can We Perceive a Chair?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

N<\/span>ear the beginning of Value in\u00a0Capitalist Society<\/a><\/em>, Paul\u00a0Cobben is explaining Marx\u2019s use of Hegelian themes and turns of argument when he summarizes Hegel\u2019s notion of Perception, a level of knowing beyond \u201cSense Certainty.\u201d Cobben writes:<\/p>\n

Perception <\/em>does not assume to have immediate knowledge of objective reality. This knowledge is mediated through the
\nperception of properties<\/em>. The question is, however, whether this cognitive criterion is sufficient to have knowledge of the objective reality, a reality which is
\nin it-self, which can be accepted as a substantial one. Hegel concludes that this\u00a0is not the case. To identify the thing with many properties<\/em>, it is insufficient to
\nperceive only properties. One needs a criterion to determine which properties
\nbelong to one thing and which to another. Only then it is possible to identify
\none thing in distinction from another. The problem is, however, that this criterion does not correspond to the cognitive criteria of Perception<\/em>: the unity of the
\nthing cannot be sensually perceived; the unity of the thing is not itself a sensual property. To clarify this with an example: we can have knowledge of a
\nchair, because we can perceive the sensual properties of the chair. But we can
\nonly identify the properties we perceive as the properties of a chair if we
\nalready have the concept \u2018chair\u2019 at our disposal. Therefore, Hegel concludes
\nthat Perception <\/em>cannot acquire objective knowledge. On the one hand, the
\nknowledge of the thing of many properties is based on objective <\/em>input, namely
\nthe perceived properties, but, on the other hand on subjective <\/em>input, namely a
\nconceptual unity which is linked to a specific language or a specific culture. A
\nperceiver who is not familiar with the concept \u2018chair\u2019 cannot perceive a chair.
\nIn this sense, Perception <\/em>has no cognition of objective reality. (15-16)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One can see the dilemma: We perceive properties, but to know that they are properties of X, we need to know X as a unified thing-with-these-properties. But we can\u2019t know X in this way by mere perception of X. Thus, Hegel says, something has to be added to our knowledge of the properties\u2014which is knowledge of the objective reality of the thing\u2014and that something is a \u201csubjective\u201d element, the concept \u201cchair.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this seems odd and wrong. The chair is<\/em> a chair, not merely a null thing with certain properties. Were we vulgar Platonists, we\u2019d say that the chair has a quality of chairness, and that this is an objective<\/em> property of the object.\u00a0Or, more Aristotelianly, it has form<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However we might do the metaphysics, the form-of-chair\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0something one perceives<\/em>.\u00a0Hegel seems to be treating the perceived properties as isolated perceptibles rather than as an assemblage of properties, an assemblage that together constitute the meta-property of being-a-chair.\u00a0When someone who has never seen a chair sees an object with chair-like properties, it\u2019s not that he knows \u201cobjectively\u201d all that can be known objectively, and needs only to add a \u201csubjective\u201d element.\u00a0Rather, though he perceives properties, he simply doesn\u2019t perceive the thing. He doesn\u2019t recognize the assemblage of properties for what it is.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Near the beginning of Value in\u00a0Capitalist Society, Paul\u00a0Cobben is explaining Marx\u2019s use of Hegelian themes and turns of argument when he summarizes Hegel\u2019s notion of Perception, a level of knowing beyond \u201cSense Certainty.\u201d Cobben writes: Perception does not assume to have immediate knowledge of objective reality. This knowledge is mediated through the perception of properties. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,1270],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-epistemology","category-hegel"],"yoast_head":"\nCan We Perceive a Chair?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Near the beginning of Value in Capitalist Society, Paul Cobben is explaining Marx's use of Hegelian themes and turns of argument when he\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/05\/can-we-perceive-a-chair\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can We Perceive a Chair?\" \/>\n<meta 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